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Appendix No. 4.

PORT HAMILTON.

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344

PORT HAMILTON.

No. 103.

Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad to Admiralty.

(Confidential.) Sir,

13, Delahay Street, June 18, 1880.

I AM directed by the Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad to request that they may be furnished with any correspondence which may have taken place with the Commanders-in-chief on the China and Pacific Stations respecting the necessity for additional coaling-stations for Her Majesty's ships within the limits of their respective commands.

The Royal Commission are anxious to have this information if the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty can give it, as it may render it unnecessary to trouble their Lordships with any special reference to the officers at present in command of those stations.

No. 104.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

HERBERT JEKYLL.

Admiralty to Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad.

(Confidential.) Sir.

Admiralty, July 5, 1880.

I HAVE laid before my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty your letter of the 18th ultimo,* conveying the request of the Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad to be furnished with copies of any correspondence which may have taken place with the Commanders-in-chief on the China and Pacific Stations respecting the necessity for additional coaling- stations for Her Majesty's ships within the limits of their respective commands.

2. My Lords have instructed me to place this information at the disposal of the Royal Commission, and I am commanded to transmit herewith a first instalment of the papers referred to, copy of corre- spondence which took place in 1875 with respect to the Port Hamilton Islands.

3. Copies of correspondence respecting other ports will be forwarded in due course.

Inclosure 1 in No. 104.

I am, &c. (Signed)

E. N. SWAINSON.

(Confidential.) Sir,

Commander-in-chief, China, to Admiralty.

"C

Audacious," at Yokohama, July 20, 1875.

I HAVE the honour to request you will inform the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that I have this day sent a telegram, of which a decypher is transmitted herewith.

1. Sir Harry Parkes has sent one of somewhat similar purport to the Foreign Office. The subjects alluded to are as follows:—

(a.) The Russians have lately acquired Seguelin, have moved from the Amur to Vladivostock, and are believed to be making preparations to annex Corea.

(b.) The German Government, who, Mr. Wade informed me, were coveting some islands for head- quarters in these seas, have sent the "Ariadne," a large corvette, to survey on the west coast of the Corea.

(c.) The Japanese have sent a vessel to survey on the east coast of Corea, and are believed to be acting in concert with Russia.

(d.) The islands off the south coast are in the track of our merchant-vessels from Japan to Chefoo, and the Coreans have massacred the wrecked crews of numerous vessels.

2. Under these circumstances, I am of opinion, and Sir Harry Parkes concurs with me:- (a) That Her Majesty's ship "Sylvia" might be more usefully employed in surveying the south-west coast of Corea than in the Inland Sea, with her head-quarters at Port Hamilton.

(b.) That it would be of great advantage to English interests in these seas in the future if we occupied Port Hamilton permanently.

3. The Coreans are an uncivilized race, who massacre the crews of wrecked merchant-vessels, and who refuse to have any intercourse with foreigners. This being the case, I hold that we stand upon no ceremony with them as to taking possession of an island lying 20 miles off their coast, inhabited by a few fishermen provided with (by the account in the Sailing Directions) no authorities.

4. I can hardly over-estimate the great importance of our having some possession in these seas which we can call our own. A dockyard, so called, at Shanghae; stores at Yokohama, on foreign ground, are little or no use in war. In war with China, or Japan, or Russia, or any other

* No. 103.

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